I’m sorry, but radio and TV has completely fucked up the way we elect the leaders of our country. Think about it. We elect presidents and senators and governors and damned near everybody based on:
* :30 TV spots
* Debates that aren’t
* Speeches the candidate didn’t write
* Yard signs (that’s a small town thing but it’s universal. The guy with the most yard signs wins)
Do any of these reveal anything about the ideas or intelligence of the candidate. No way. You know what would? A blog. A blog written 100% by the candidate (not sure how you could keep the bastards from cheating and you know they’d try).
Make every candidate blog during the year leading up to the election. They can post as often as they like… about any topic they like.
This has the added benefit of requiring the American voter to get more involved than watching some mindless network television salted with attack ads.
“Wait a minute, smays. Leadership requires courage and values (like mine) and a bunch of other qualities that have nothing to do with how well you express your ideas in writing.”
Horse shit. If you can’t think… you can’t lead. At least not well. And I want to measure the quality of your ideas. Not the ideas of your campaign manager, or your PR firm… your ideas.
If you’re hung up on the writing thing… let’s throw a podcast into the mix. Every candidate produces a weekly, fifteen minute podcast. Any topic, any format. But the candidate must produce it him or herself (they go into a glass walled studio, put it together and upload it).
Imagine reading blogs written by George W. Bush; Bill Clinton (or Hillary Clinton); Al Gore; John Kerry; John McCain; Al Sharpton; Dick Cheney; Ralph Nader… you get the idea. Can you honestly say you wouldn’t have a better feel for who these people are and what they really believe? Of course they’d try to scam and bullshit you. But it would be so much harder to do.
I can fool you for 30 seconds at a time. Especially if you’ re not paying much attention. But if you’re reading what I say every day, for a year… you’re gonna learn some things about me. Good and bad.
And here’s the proof of this pot of pudding: Regular readers of smays.com have NO doubt that I would make a really bad (fill in the elective office).
Feedback: LeAnn says the tone of this post lacks “the same effervescent, entertaining qualities of your other posts. I am concerned someone pissed you way the “f” off on Thursday.” Nope, Thursday was a very nice day. But the post does read “angry,” doesn’t it. I should really stay away from politics.
I had to look up the definition of “effervescent” (vivacious; gay; lively; sparkling). I think I can sparkle but vivacious will be a stretch.
That’s the name of 
“Just imagine, you’re listening to the radio, Tony Snow has been speaking to you as the spokesman for the leader of the free world, and then a commercial comes on with him trying to sell you a window,” Ms. Henderson said Thursday. “He introduced himself as Tony Snow, talked about the travails of remodeling projects, boasted about the 30-year history of this business and delivered the 800 number of the business, twice.”